Urban Landscapes: Social, Cultural, and Ecological Heritage

Summary

Urban locations have an entire component of the landscape that is often overlooked, historic underground spaces. Not to be confused with the underground art and culture scene that occurs in a thriving, modern city; the historic underground can provide insight into a city’s past social, cultural, and ecological heritage. Because this particular part of the landscape is often neglected in anthropological research, there are not a lot of resources available to understand the historic uses of these urban spaces. There is a common phrase, "build it from the ground up," yet there is a lot to be learned by modifying that to "build it from the ground, above and below." During 2012-2014, a study was conducted in Missoula, Montana, to investigate subterranean archaeological features including steam tunnels, sidewalk voids, and city basement spaces to determine if the socio-cultural, economic, and cultural heritage of that city could be detected in the archaeological record. This project seeks to build upon that work by employing tried and true archaeological survey and historical research, but also newer, modern archaeological tools such as Geographical Information Systems and ground penetrating radar technology for a more detailed spatial analysis of historic urban design and urban ecosystem transformation.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage